For Bard Brains Only

Up for a little toil and trouble (or, for College alums, a flashback to the Core Curriculum)? To mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, we asked Columbia English professor James Shapiro ’77CC, author of The Year of Lear, to help us create a quiz to test your knowledge of the Bard’s life and works. Can you ace it? By Marley Marius

1) Where did William Shakespeare die?A) London B) High WycombeC) Stratford-upon-Avon

2) In what meter are the majority of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets written?A) iambic pentameterB) trochaic tetrameterC) dactylic hexameter

3) What outbreak caused English theaters to close — and granted Shakespeare more time to write poetry — in early 1593?A) smallpoxB) typhoidC) the bubonic plague4) Which of the following first names did Shakespeare popularize?A) PaigeB) LoreleiC) BiancaD) all of the above 5) Who composed the “fantasy overture” Romeo and Juliet, inspired by the Shakespeare play of the same name?A) TchaikovskyB) BrahmsC) Dvořák6) Which of the following movies borrows important plot points from Hamlet?A) Throne of Blood (1957)B) The Lion King (1994)C) Ran (1985)7) What was the name of Shakespeare’s wife?A) Emily BluntB) Judith LightC) Anne Hathaway

8) In what year did Columbia’s copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, donated by Stephen Whitney Phoenix 1859CC, 1863LAW, enter its rare-books collection?A) 1869B) 1871C) 18819) Which is Shakespeare’s shortest play?A) As You Like ItB) The Winter’s TaleC) The Comedy of Errors10) Which is the missing word from the following line from Othello? “To mourn a ____ that is past and gone / Is the next way to draw new ____ on.”A) mischiefB) romanceC) vigor11) Who of the following once referred to Shakespeare as “the nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God”?A) Winston ChurchillB) Laurence OlivierC) Joseph Conrad12) What are the final words of Shakespeare’s epitaph?A)“... the owner of no one good quality.”B) “... cursed be he that moves my bones.”C) “... all losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.”